Chinese translation

Learn how to get better translations crafted by real people

Do you need Chinese translation services between English and Simplified Chinese or Traditional Chinese? Or maybe you are unsure of your needs. Confusingly, both forms of written Chinese can be referred to as Mandarin. We can help you decide which version of written Chinese you need.

30 years experience:

Better Languages has over 30 years experience of translating a wide range of business texts. We work between English and both written forms of Chinese. This includes high profile public documents such as annual reports, corporate brochures, websites, and product packaging.

If you would like a free, no obligation quote, please contact us now. Or, keep reading to find out more about our Chinese translation services.

Do you need Simplified or Traditional Chinese Translation Services?

There are many Chinese spoken languages like Mandarin, Wu and Cantonese. However, most of them use one of two writing systems, Simplified or Traditional. If you want to communicate with customers in the People’s Republic of China you should normally use Simplified Chinese. For Hong Kong, Taiwan and many other parts of the World you will need Traditional Chinese. If you’re not sure whether you need Simplified or Traditional Chinese you can talk to our language professionals today and we’d be happy to advise you.

So what is the difference between the two Chinese character sets?

Traditional Chinese, is literally that – the traditional form of the language. China had a big literacy problem, so the Chinese Government introduced a Simplified Character set. You can hand-write Simplified Chinese characters more quickly. This is because you need to use less pen strokes.

Simplified Chinese also has less commonly used characters. There are around 4500, compared with around 6500 in Traditional Chinese. Many Chinese translators have the ability to work with either character set. However, within the general population, most people can only read one of the two character sets. Which character set they are familiar with largely depends on the geography of where they have been born and educated.

Chinese Translation Services – Our Native Translators

Better Languages always uses professional translators, who are native Chinese speakers. With the complexities of the Chinese language it is particularly important that the translator has a good understanding not only of English language, but also of English culture. This ensures that they can accurately reflect the source language within the translation. Much of our Chinese translation work is translating documents for retail. This includes product packaging, food labelling, care label translations, as well as translating product guides and user manuals.

What about the different characters and fonts needed for Chinese Translations?

When viewing our Chinese translations on your computer you will need to have an appropriate Chinese font installed in order for you to be able to see the characters. You can easily install them. Most Chinese fonts are Unicode compliant which gives good cross platform compatibility between Macs and PCs. The positive of Chinese fonts, is if the text doesn’t display correctly, it normally appears as little boxes, rather than symbols. So you will know that something is wrong.

When it comes to design programmes such as Illustrator or InDesign, fonts can be more challenging. The issue is that as there are literally thousands of symbols in either form of Chinese, the fonts are expensive to buy. If you are working with a design studio or in-house team who work with Chinese regularly, this isn’t a problem. However, if you are just doing a single project in Chinese, you probably won’t want to buy the fonts.

The solution here, is that we have the capability to typeset your Chinese, we simply need the required dimensions, and the live artwork to work with.

Chinese Translation Services – Typesetting

We provide Chinese typesetting with either character set. Chinese is not written with an alphabet but is ‘logosyllabic’ which makes careful typesetting and checking critical.

Generally speaking, typeset Chinese will take up less room than the equivalent English as each Chinese character represents a word. We are able to typeset your Chinese translation either horizontally from left to right, or vertically from top to bottom, depending on your requirements. Again, if you’re not sure one of our language professionals will be able to advise you which is the correct format for your target audience. Chinese is not difficult for artworkers to handle, providing they have the necessary fonts.

Why choose Chinese translation services from Better Languages?

We have over 30 years experience translating for the leading Chinese markets. We work with top retailers including Mothercare, Early Learning Centre, and many others. Our clients also include universities and colleges.

Choosing Better Languages as your Chinese translation service provider ensures that you are working with language experts whose translators are native Chinese speakers and also qualified linguists. All projects are carefully project managed, and subject to rigorous QA.